The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Software may provide a variety of actions that allow users to manipulate their data for different purposes, in ways that previously were simply too laborious or near impossible to implement manually before being embodied in software. Software may include multiple actions that perform the same or nearly the same purpose, even within a particular piece of software. However, as computer program applications become complex, they may contain many functional operations that users do not effectively utilize.
For example, arranging purchases of goods or services is a common task in business enterprises, and companies often use a computer-based procurement system to manage creating, reviewing, approving, and communicating requests to purchase items in coordination with suppliers or vendors. These systems can be complex, with numerous features, functions, tasks and operations available at many different screen displays. Further, once users use a particular way of doing things, such as repeatedly using actions they are accustomed to for a particular purpose, it is often difficult to convince users to change and try different actions. For example, the procurement system for an organization may include an invoicing feature, but when a new action is introduced in the procurement software related to the invoicing feature, the new action may not be adopted by users, even when the new action provides new technical benefits. There may be compelling technical or business reasons why an administrator or manager would like to promote use of the new action throughout an organization. Examples include more efficiently processing invoices, more secure mechanisms for transfer of information, and greater transparency into the invoicing process. Therefore, there is a need for a technical process that induces adoption of the new actions to result in better technical performance. An enterprise that is using the procurement system also may wish to facilitate the use of new functions by employees of the enterprise, but in current practice there is no simple automated process to organize the new functions that are available and track the progress of users in adopting and using them.